a free, two-day public art festival at a former Chevrolet manufacturing site known as Chevy Commons

2013 Performances

Friday May 3

Free City Mainstage

6 – 6:30pm Opening Ceremony

Flint-based steel drum band The Steelheads play Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” to kick off the festival, followed by brief remarks by Congressman Dan Kildee, Mayor Dayne Walling, and Flint Public Art Project director Stephen Zacks.

6:30 – 7pm The Steelheads

The Steelheads are a dynamic and innovative steel band from Mott Middle College High School and Mott Community College in Flint. Founded by James Coviak, the group has performed hundreds of times throughout the community of greater Flint and has been recognized for excellence in dozens of national and international competitions and jazz festivals across North America and Europe.

8:30 – 9pm Destroyed Monster

The story of a monster’s ghost, loosely based on Japanese Noh theater, with costumes and body-puppets made almost exclusively of old automotive parts.

9:30 – 10pm Second Sight

A performance combining dance and architecture, built space and moving bodies. Audience members sit among a set of mirrored panels, which reflect images of the dancers but never allow a fully direct view.

10:30 – 11pm Destroyed Monster

At 605 Stone Street

7:30 – 8pm The Rube Goldberg Variations

Frank Pahl and Tim Holmes perform on homemade instruments made using antique sewing machines, propane tanks, and pots and pans. After the show, the audience is invited to play the instruments themselves.

9 – 10pm The 7-Person Chair Pyramid High Wire Act

Baltimore-based Der Vorführeffekt Theatre presents a play about Charles Darwin, the Yeti, the miraculousness (or not) of flying mammals, and rope-making methods of ancient Siberia.

Saturday May 4

Free City Mainstage

2 – 2:30pm Space Band Detroit

Disparate soul musicnoisefun by disparate souls, for the same

4 – 4:45pm Flint City Wide Choir

A multi-denominational choir with members from more than 50 churches around Flint performs “Amazing Grace” and other selections

5 – 5:30pm Spoken-Word Showcase

Flint-based artist Natasha Thomas-Jackson reads a selection of her poems.

5:30 – 6pm Hardcore Detroit

Haleem Rasul’s Detroit-based hip-hop dance company uses the design elements of line contrast, shape, pattern, and juxtaposition to create their performances.

8:30 – 9pm Destroyed Monster

The Institute for Aesthetic Modulation presents the story of a monster’s ghost, loosely based on Japanese Noh theater, with costumes and body-puppets made almost exclusively of old automotive parts.

9 – 9:30pm Tunde Olanarian

Strains of modern Motown meet Euro-electronica with a heart of Nigerian funk, pure pop melodies and fluid 4-octave range vocals, delivered with a glam-rock sensibility

10 – 10:30pm Destroyed Monster

10:30 – 11pm Second Sight

At other locations on-site

3 – 11pm After the Closer

Detroit-based performance group The Hinterlands hunt for the ghosts of classic Vaudeville in a one-day micro-performance tour through one the monuments to the industrial age, tracing the disappearance of this once-great American performance form through the technologies that replaced it.

4 – 6pm What is the Word?

Flint-based artist Rebekah Mikkelson offers a mobile puppet theatre performance that draws attention to literacy in Flint. The puppet show is based upon a Samuel Beckett poem which details the struggle toward self-expression through language.

At 605 Stone Street

3 – 5pm 24 Things About Me

Personal video portraits showing everyday life scenes of Northwestern High School students, in partnership with students at University of Michigan

Sunday May 5

Free City MainStage

2 – 2:30pm; 3 – 3:30pm Second Sight

A peformance combining dance and architecture, built space and moving bodies. Audience members sit among a set of mirrored panels which reflect images of the dancers, but never allow a fully direct view.

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5 – 6pm Voiceless Opera

Flint-based performance group Fischer Bodies plunges into a conceptual history of Flint, touching on a five key eras: Forest vs Industry, Carriage Town into Vehicle City, Labor Laws and Effort, Emergency vs Revision, and the Future.

7 – 7:30pm Endless Drummers

The closing event of Free City will feature dozens of the region’s best drummers in a massive collaborative performance, organized by Melissa Mays of Indi-Grace Promotions, with help from Torrey Dailey of Until Solace and The Rockstars Academy.